Women-owned businesses start life with significantly less capital than those owned by men. How can a business grow if it starts life undernourished? Yet, if you’re a woman business owner, your business will start with less and raise less as it grows. If you settle for that situation, you’ll likely end up with less to show for your trouble, a smaller, less successful business than if a man had come up with the same idea and energy, according to a key Department of Commerce survey of women-owned companies across the U.S.

Tracey Harding is one smart business woman. She is co-owner of Kidz Enterprise Toys, in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, just a few miles from New Hampshire, where shoppers can save money instantly because they don’t have to pay sales tax.

In 1995, Julie Azuma, the mother of a newly diagnosed autistic daughter, went from store to store, trying to find the educational materials her daughter needed. Along the way, she’d joined a listserve -- remember those? -- for parents of autistic children so she knew that other parents were as frustrated as she was.

Geri Stengel of Ventureneer and Maisha Walker of Message Medium appeared on FoxNews Live on Friday, May 18, discussing their survey collaboration, Ditch Digital Dabbling: How Small Business + Nonprofits Can Master Online Marketing.

Download the free excutive summary to see how online marketing can save failing businesses, create opportunities, and find talent for both small businesses and nonprofits.

For a deeper dive, the full report gets you access to the “members only” online marketing case studies. It shows you how to choose the social media that are most effective for your goals and target market, and how to make your investment pay off. It also explains in plain English the best uses for each online marketing platform.

The extended corporate report outlines suggestions for corporate engagement with small businesses and nonprofits. This report gives you a new approach for reaching this large market, an approach that will help small businesses and nonprofits grow while building your brand and the loyalty of your customers in these sectors.

Another day off to recharge and reflect: I visited Washington Irving's home at Sunnyside, just north of New York City. Lovely day immersed in history, literature, and the fresh air of the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail.

It’s almost over. Small Business Week will end tomorrow and with it, many of the promotions and much of the hype. The conference will be over, the Twitter feeds will fade away. Back to business as usual.